MUSIC - Welcome To The North (Virgin)
The Music have spent the past year touring their debut album in the US, and also writing this new one, and life on the road has certainly influenced their writing. 'The Music' was a brilliant mix of dance and rock, incorporating all the best bits from the Roses and Mondays and adding in Robert Harvey's Plant-lite vocals. Perhaps taking that as a lead, they have now added Zeppelin to the music as well, with the title track opening in a hail of guitars. But it is 'Freedom Fighters' where you really hear it, with its opening riff blasting out of the speakers, closely followed by 'Bleed From Within' - these are the songs which show how the band's music has progressed. 'Breakin'' harks back to that first album, and after the onslaught of the first five songs we get a brief respite in 'Fight The Feeling' and the mostly instrumental 'Guide', before the band are back in full flight with 'Into The Night'. 'One Way In, No Way Out' sports another great Zep-tastic riff around which the band weave their magic, and 'Open Your Mind' closes the album with some great heavy dance grooves. If I have one criticism it is that the rather fussy production does tend to make a lot of the tracks blend into one another, with only two or three really standing out on their own - mostly from the first two sides of the vinyl issue - but apart from that this is a fine album, and a worthy follow-up to their exceptional debut.